Have you ever tried taking a shortcut or was given the directions involving a shortcut, only to find out that it tripled the amount of time it would have taken if you just stuck to the normal path? Human beings LOVE shortcuts, but most of the time a shortcut is a recipe for disaster. However, the worst shortcuts result in humans having to eat other humans to stay alive due to all the delays that "shortcut" provided. 

In episode 1, Kara introduces the first part of a three part series about the Donner Party incident in the winter months of 1846 and 1847. In this first part, Kara is going to set the stage for who was involved in the Donner Party and why they were traveling to California and just exactly was this sketchy shortcut? We're going to learn about the major players, the decision makers, the shakers and stirrers of the party, and most importantly, learn about a massive double decker ox-pulled wagon and how it would get stuck in a McDonalds drive-thru today. 

In part 2, Kara tells the story of the Party of Forlorn Hope, which consisted of 15 men, women, and children that attempted to crawl their way out from the Donner party to try and get help. However, this group got stuck in what was suppose to be a two week adventure ballooned into 33 days! Instead of finding someone to help them, it seemed as though they only found death, and he took a huge toll on the party. As a result, the Party of Forlorn Hope had to make impossible decision and commit unfathomable act to survive when people were dying around them!

In part 3,  the Donner party had already been trying to survive in the wild during a winter and as food ran out, desperation forced the living to consider the dead a viable source of food. And in this episode we discover that just because they were eventually "rescued" they weren't out of the woods yet... LITERALLY. In what turns into a situation of hope and survival, we get to see that even though everyone was suffering the decent, kind, and crazy strong among our species will rise to the top to help others.